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Effects on populations

New Orleans, Louisiana, after being struck by Hurricane Katrina. Katrina was a Category 3 hurricane when it struck although it had been a category 5 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico.

Weather has played a large and sometimes direct part in human history. Aside from climatic changes that have caused the gradual drift of populations (for example the desertification of the Middle East, and the formation of land bridges during glacial periods), extreme weather events have caused smaller scale population movements and intruded directly in historical events. One such event is the saving of Japan from invasion by the Mongol fleet of Kublai Khan by the Kamikaze winds in 1281.[20] French claims to Florida came to an end in 1565 when a hurricane destroyed the French fleet, allowing Spain to conquer Fort Caroline.[21] More recently,Hurricane Katrina redistributed over one million people from the central Gulf coast elsewhere across the United States, becoming the largest diaspora in the history of the United States.[22]
The Meaning of Temperature

Temperature is the property that gives physical meaning to the concept of heat. If an object is cold, we say it has a low temperature. If it is hot, we say it has a high temperature. It can also be observed that if a hot poker is plunged into cold water, the poker becomes cooler and the water becomes warmer. This means that the hot body gives up some of its heat to the cold body.

In the atmosphere, temperature is one of the most sensitive indicators of dynamical and physical processes. It is affected by interactions between the air and the land or ocean, by the radiation received from the Sun and emitted by

the atmosphere and the Earth's surface, by chemical interactions (particularly in the upper atmosphere), by changes in state of water from gas to liquid to ice and back again, and by upward and downward motion. A knowledge of the current temperature in all parts of the atmosphere is crucial to weather forecasting. A massive international effort yields detailed temperature (and wind and pressure) observations every few hours. Because many factors influence the temperature at any given place great care must be taken in making these observations to ensure that they are truly representative of the atmosphere at that location.
Physical meaning of temperature

Temperature is one of the fundamental concepts of physics, like mass, length, and time. Our human senses perceive temperature only when heat is being transferred to or from our bodies; for example, when we stand in front of a roaring fire or we hold an ice cube in our hand. Heat flows from objects which have a higher temperature to objects with a lower temperature; it does not flow in the opposite direction. This is a statement of the second law of thermodynamics. Heat is a form of energy. All substances, whether solids, gases, or liquids, are composed of molecules moving more or less randomly at different speeds. If we took two solid objects, say the top of a stove and the bottom of a cooking pot, one being much hotter than the other, then the molecules in the hotter object would be moving much faster. When the objects are brought into contact, the faster-moving molecules collide with the slower-moving molecules and transfer some of their energy. The slower-moving molecules in the colder object increase their energy and their temperature. Temperature is a way of measuring the average energy of molecules in a substance. If we pour a glass of hot water and a glass of cold water (each containing the same amount of water) into a jug, then the internal energy of the molecules in the mixture will be the average of the internal energies of the initial two glasses of waterand the temperature of the mixture will be the average of the temperatures of the two initial glasses.

In these examples all the heat transferred to an object results in an increase in the temperature. When this happens the heat is described as specific heat. Another form of heat, latent heat, does not immediately result in a temperature change. This applies when materials change from one state to another: for example, from a gas to a liquid (condensation) or from a solid to a liquid (melting). When it rains and a road surface is wet, the temperature of the water on the road and the temperature of the air will be approximately the same. If heat is supplied, for example by sunshine, then some of the energy supplied to the water will be used to break the molecular bonds that hold liquids together and will enable the molecules to move freely as they do in a gas; the liquid water then evaporates to become water vapour. Because the energy is not used to increase the motion of the molecules, the temperature is not affected during this process: the water changes from a liquid to a gas without changing temperature. The heat used in this process is latent heat. It is latent because the heat is potentially available and will be released when the water vapour condenses at some time in the future to form a liquid. The water which evaporated at the road surface may be carried about in the atmosphere until eventually it becomes part of a cloud and condenses into water drops. When this condensation occurs, the heat originally used to break the molecular bonds is released and warms the air and the water droplets, thus raising their temperature. Latent heat is a very important factor in the atmosphere, for it enables heat received at one location to be released at another location. We can consider the large-scale movement of water vapour carried by winds in the atmosphere to be a large-scale movement of latent heat.
Temperature scales

In common with the other fundamental physical properties, temperature is measured in arbitrary units. To devise a temperature scale, scientists in the eighteenth century chose two situations which were easily reproducible as critical points on which a scale is based. They then divided the interval between these points into intervals called degrees. The two scales still in common use are those named after Fahrenheit and Celsius. Fahrenheit used

the boiling point of water as his upper reference point, and the lowest temperature achievable by mixing water, ice, and salt as the lowest. He defined the lower point as 0 degrees and the upper point as 212 degrees (following a temperature scale earlier proposed by Newton). On this scale the freezing point of water lies at 32 degrees. The Celsius scale, for many years called the centigrade scale, uses the freezing point of water as the lower reference point (0 degrees) and the boiling point of water as the upper point (100 degrees). Several other scales were suggested in the eighteenth century but only these two have stood the test of time. Because temperature is a measure of the motion of molecules there is a theoretical absolute zero temperature at which all molecular motion would cease. A temperature scale can accordingly be devised which has absolute zero as its lower reference point. This scale, known as the Kelvin scale, has the same intervals as the Celsius scale. Zero on the Kelvin scale is 273.15 Celsius. The Kelvin scale is used widely for scientific purposes since it has the advantage that there are no negative values.

Read more: atmospheric temperature - Physical meaning of temperature, Temperature scales, Measuring temperature, Factors influencing temperature, Fig. 1 - Heat, Water, Scale, Atmosphere, Surface, and Molecules http://science.jrank.org/pages/47334/atmospherictemperature.html#ixzz1RZztwqMi Measuring temperature

Thermometers are the most commonly used instrument for measuring temperature, but other instruments are also in regular use for making remote measurements in the atmosphere. Several varieties of thermometer are used in meteorology. The maximum thermometer is similar to a clinical thermometer used by medical staff. It has a small constriction near the reservoir (Fig. 1), which prevents the fluid from returning once it has expanded; it therefore records the highest temperature reached until it is reset. To record minimum temperatures, some thermometers have a small metallic marker inside the fluid. When the temperature drops, this marker is dragged down the tube by the meniscus of the fluid (Fig. 1). When the temperature rises, the fluid moves along the tube but leaves the marker to indicate the lowest temperature reached.

http://science.jrank.org/pages/47334/atmospherictemperature.html#ixzFactors influencing temperature The temperature at any particular place is influenced by a number of factors: latitude; season; altitude; proximity to a major ocean; time of day; wind direction; present weather conditions. The last three of these control variations in temperature over short periods, of hours to days; the others are important for periods of weeks to months or longer. On the shorter timescales the diurnal cycle has a major effect. During the day solar radiation is absorbed at the ground and heats the air above it by convection and conduction. Although solar radiation is at its maximum about the middle of the day the ground reacts slowly to the heating and the maximum air temperature lags a few hours behind the maximum radiation. The Earth's surface, in common with all bodies, radiates heat. During the day the incoming heat from the Sun exceeds the radiated heat, except in polar regions, but at night there is a net loss of heat and the air near the surface cools. The cooling process proceeds until the Sun again produces a net input of heat; the minimum in temperature is consequently around dawn. The heat received from the Sun and the heat lost by radiation are, of course, both reduced in cloudy conditions. Local weather systems which determine the direction of the wind influence the day-to-day temperature changes. Air may be directed from warmer regions, from polar regions, or from oceans or continental land masses, each giving different local characteristics. Seasonal variations exist because the axis about which the Earth spins is tilted in relation to the plane of its orbit around the Sun. This means that during part of the year the southern hemisphere receives more sunlight and six months later the northern hemisphere receives more (Fig. 3). The maximum temperatures in the summer hemisphere are found in a belt between the equator and about 30 degrees, but higher latitudes are also warmer than in the winter hemisphere. The winter hemisphere has no sunlight falling on the polar region and the warm tropical regions are cooler than their summer counterpart.

Fig. 3. The tilt of the Earth's axis causes the northern hemisphere to receive more sunshine in June and the southern hemisphere to receive more in December.

Since the sunlight falling on tropical regions exceeds that falling on polar regions, there is a variation of temperature with latitude. On a journey in January from the north of Norway (70 N) to southern Spain (40 N), we would experience temperatures from about 12 C to about 10 C on average. In North America, the equivalent journey would be from Baffin Island in Canada to New York. The temperatures experienced on this journey would be from about 34 C to 12 C. This difference illustrates the effect of the circulation of the Atlantic Ocean. Warm currents are found on the eastern side of the great oceans, and as a result equivalent latitudes in western Europe are considerably warmer than their equivalent on the eastern seaboard of North America. If we travelled away from the coast into the continental land mass, while remaining at the same latitude, we would find that the temperature in January would drop the further we were from the ocean. This is because the thermal capacity of the oceans is very much greater than that of the land. The

same amount of heating or cooling will cause a much smaller difference in the ocean temperature than in the land temperature. In summer, the result of this difference is that the continental land masses are heated much more rapidly than the oceans; the coastal regions therefore experience lower temperatures than their inland neighbours. Altitude is the remaining major factor influencing temperature. Because temperature decreases with height at an average rate of about 6.5 C for every kilometre it might be expected that, all else being equal, two towns at altitudes one kilometre apart would have average temperatures 6.5 C apart. This is not the case. Rising up through the atmosphere leaving the land behind is different from rising up a hillside but remaining close to the land. The hillside absorbs solar radiation and is thus warmer than the free atmosphere at the same altitude. The amount of warming depends on the orientation of the hillside. If it is south-facing, then a considerable amount of sunshine may be absorbed, while north-facing slopes can be extremely cold.

Humidity can be measured in several ways, but relative humidity is the most common. In order to understand relative humidity, it is helpful to first understand absolute humidity. Absolute humidity is the mass of water vapor divided by the mass of dry air in a volume of air at a given temperature. The hotter the air is, the more water it can contain. Ads by Google Moisture measurement Manufacturer of moisture measuring technology for bulk materials www.muetec.de Relative Humidity Sensor Relative Humidity Sensors for BMS Duct and Room Transmitters www.247able.com Buy Thermometers Your Reliable TW supplier, High Quality. Inquiry now ! www.tecpel.com Relative humidity is the ratio of the current absolute humidity to the highest possible absolute humidity (which depends on the current air temperature). A reading of 100 percent relative humidity means that the air is totally saturated with water vapor and cannot hold any more, creatin g the possibility of rain. This doesn't mean that the relative humidity must be 100 percent in order for it to rain -- it must be 100 percent where the clouds are forming, but the relative humidity near the ground could be much less. Humans are very sensitive to humidity, as the skin relies on the air to get rid of moisture. The process of sweating is your body's attempt to keep cool and maintain its current temperature. If the air is at 100-percent relative humidity,

sweat will not evaporate into the air. As a result, we feel much hotter than the actual temperature when the relative humidity is high. If the relative humidity is low, we can feel much cooler than the actual temperature because our sweat evaporates easily, cooling us off. For example, if the air temperature is 75 degrees Fahrenheit (24 degrees Celsius) and the relative humidity is zero percent, the air temperature feels like 69 degrees Fahrenheit (21 C) to our bodies. If the air temperature is 75 degrees Fahrenheit (24 C) and the relative humidity is 100 percent, we feel like it's 80 degrees (27 C) out. People tend to feel most comfortable at a relative humidity of about 45 percent. Humidifiers and dehumidifiers help to keep indoor humidity at a comfortable level.

A. THE CONCEPT

Humidity is a complicated concept. So complicated that most TV meteorologists I know cannot and do not explain it correctly - More on this in part "B". Humidity refers to the amount of water vapor in the air (not liquid water drops or ice crystals or snowflakes). For years you have seen RELATIVE HUMIDITY during TV weathercasts, and it seems to make sense but as I mentioned it is complicated and even the complications about humidity have complications. But because the essence is very simple it is amazing There is SOOOO much confusion about humidity. First when thinking about humidity - ALWAYS THINK ENERGY!

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